NFBC – Final Update – Matt Kemp homers Moustacheball into mo money

When I first started posting about my teams results in the NFBC back in early August I had just cracked the top 20. At that time I was simply excited to be leading my league, and while hoping for a top 10 overall finish, never really believed it was possible. Yet, Kershaw/Kemp just kept doing their thing, and while some teams above me had Kershaw, no one had Matt Kemp so every time he delivered, he moved my team up the ladder. It was a crazy final day for me, and below is the recap.

Main Event Las Vegas March 22 League One Results

Moustacheball had the Main Event Las Vegas March 22 League One league title locked up several weeks ago, and ended up winning by 19 points, a substantial margin given the competition which included the 2013 NFBC $125,000 overall winner. The winner of each of the 30 leagues pulls home $6500

Going into the last game, Moustacheball was in 7th place just a bit above 8th place. Some times you just need some luck. The team below had Wainwright ready to pitch but when the Pirates lost to the Reds, Wainwright sat out the last game which crushed that teams chance of taking my seventh place spot. Cole Hamels came up big in his last start of the year to give a good start to my day, but I was still in seventh as the morning games finished, but now found myself just a few points behind 6th.

One swing of the bat by Matt Kemp and Moustacheball had pushed themselves into 6th place. Now it was simply watching and hoping the lead would hold up. Most players were sitting out Sunday so very little action was happening in the afternoon games, and when the dust had settled on the 2014 season, the Moustacheball team had secured 6th place, and another $5,000 by 1 point.

I had paid over 250 FAAB dollars for Mookie Betts and in Sept he proved to be worth every penny, but it was Clayton Kershaw who pitched this team into the money.

I know it sounds strange to be excited about a 6th place finish but when it is 6th place out of 420 teams, I don’t feel wrong in feeling great about the season. I played against the best roto players in this country and more than held my own. Every roto site from http://www.baseballhq.com to http://www.rotowire.com has multiple teams in this competition.

Finishing sixth won’t change my life, but it does give what I do some validation.

It is easy to look back at the draft and see which move was the move that could have changed everything. With the 20th pick, I took Pirate pitching prospect Jameson Tallison. I had Dee Gordon on my list but figured I could get him with the next pick. The very next team picked Dee Gordon. I only had 186 points in the stolen base category, if I only added 50 steals that Dee would have brought me, that would have been 408 points. A swing of 222 points, and possibly the overall championship. Given he would have replaced Aaron Hill as my 2nd baseman, my BA would also have gone up quite a few points, as would have runs scored. The team that won, did have Dee Gordon. Kudos to him.